Senior Bowl exec Steve Hale revisits Clemson for celebration

View full sizeSenior Bowl President Steve Hale returns to Clemson University today where the 1981 national champions will be honored. Hale was an assistant coach under Danny Ford in 1981. (Press-Register file photo)

The 1981 season he spent as an assistant coach at Clemson will always be special to Senior Bowl CEO Steve Hale because the Tigers won the national championship.

Today, that team will return to Clemson to celebrate the 30th anniversary of winning that title.

Hale will mix business with pleasure.

"It's also going to be a good football game with Clemson playing North Carolina, and the amount of talent that's going to be on the field will be evaluated as well," he said.

Hale coached the outside linebackers on the 1981 Clemson team, which beat Nebraska 22-15 in the 1982 Orange Bowl to win the crown.

"It's amazing, when you go back and look, at how good that team was defensively," he said. "I was looking this up the other day and the longest running play (allowed) from scrimmage was 26 yards and the longest play, run or pass, was 30 yards.

"We were playing with a freshman nose tackle named William Perry and so many All-Americans on that team: Terry Kinard, Perry Tuttle, Jeff Davis, Jeff Bryant, you could go on and on."

One thing concerns Hale about the celebration -- the entrance.

"I noticed in the letter that they sent out that at some point they're going to ask us to run down the hill, which is the tradition at Clemson -- the players and coaches touch the rock and run down the hill," he said. "I'm just glad that they're not going to ask us to run up the hill."